How does the character of Tom Buchanan represent the themes of power, privilege, and racial prejudice in “The Great Gatsby”?

From Conflict to Identity: Main Issues Explored in US Literary Education - Ievgen Sykalo 2026

How does the character of Tom Buchanan represent the themes of power, privilege, and racial prejudice in “The Great Gatsby”?

entry

Entry — Contextual Frame

The Jazz Age's Hard Edge: Tom Buchanan as a Social Barometer

Core Claim The novel uses Tom Buchanan not merely as an antagonist, but as a precise instrument to measure the fears of social decay and entrenched hierarchies of 1920s America, particularly regarding class, race, and gender.
Entry Points
  • Post-WWI Disillusionment: The era's superficial glamour often obscured a deep-seated fear of social decay and the erosion of traditional power structures, which Tom actively articulates and defends (Fitzgerald, 1925).
  • The "New Money" Threat: The rapid rise of self-made millionaires like Gatsby challenged the inherited wealth and social dominance of families like the Buchanans, creating intense resentment among the old guard (Fitzgerald, 1925).
  • Eugenics and Racial Pseudoscience: Tom's casual references to "The Rise of the Colored Empires" reflect a widespread, though often unstated, anxiety among white elites about racial purity and the perceived threat of non-white populations (Fitzgerald, 1925).
  • Shifting Gender Roles: While Tom embodies traditional, aggressive masculinity, his wife Daisy's restlessness and his mistress Myrtle's ambition hint at the era's nascent challenges to patriarchal norms, which he violently resists (Fitzgerald, 1925).
Think About It

How does Tom Buchanan's rigid adherence to social hierarchies reveal the underlying fragility of the "old money" world he desperately tries to preserve?

Thesis Scaffold

F. Scott Fitzgerald positions Tom Buchanan's aggressive defense of his inherited social status and racial ideology in Chapter 1 as a direct counterpoint to the era's perceived moral decay, thereby exposing the deep anxieties beneath the Jazz Age's glittering surface (Fitzgerald, 1925).

psyche

Psyche — Character as System

Tom Buchanan: The Architecture of Entitlement

Core Claim Tom Buchanan's character functions as a closed system of inherited privilege and insecurity, where his outward aggression and certainty mask a profound fear of losing his unearned social standing.
Character System — Tom Buchanan
Desire To maintain absolute control over his environment, his wife, his mistress, and the social order, ensuring his inherited superiority remains unchallenged (Fitzgerald, 1925).
Fear The erosion of his social class, racial purity, and patriarchal authority, particularly threatened by "new money" figures like Gatsby and the perceived rise of non-white populations (Fitzgerald, 1925).
Self-Image A natural aristocrat, physically dominant, intellectually superior, and morally upright guardian of traditional values, despite his own hypocrisy (Fitzgerald, 1925).
Contradiction He champions traditional morality and racial purity while openly engaging in infidelity and brutalizing those he deems inferior, revealing a self-serving and inconsistent moral code (Fitzgerald, 1925).
Function in text To embody the corrupting influence of inherited wealth and unchecked power, serving as the primary antagonist who actively crushes the aspirations of those who challenge the established order (Fitzgerald, 1925).
Psychological Mechanisms
  • Projection: Tom projects his own moral failings onto Gatsby, accusing him of being a "common swindler" and a "bootlegger" because he cannot tolerate the idea of a self-made man achieving wealth and social proximity (Fitzgerald, 1925).
  • Compensatory Aggression: His physical violence towards Myrtle in Chapter 2, breaking her nose, functions as a desperate attempt to reassert control and dominance when his authority is momentarily questioned or undermined, particularly when she dares to speak Daisy's name, demonstrating his fragile sense of power (Fitzgerald, 1925, p. 37).
  • Cognitive Dissonance: Tom genuinely believes in his own moral superiority and the sanctity of his marriage, even as he openly conducts an affair (Fitzgerald, 1925).
Think About It

What internal anxieties drive Tom Buchanan's need to control and dominate others, even when his own actions contradict the very values he claims to uphold?

Thesis Scaffold

Fitzgerald constructs Tom Buchanan's psychological profile through his violent outbursts and hypocritical moralizing, revealing how inherited privilege can warp an individual's self-perception into a fragile, aggressive defense mechanism against perceived social threats (Fitzgerald, 1925).

world

World — Historical Pressures

The Shadow of 1920s America: Tom Buchanan's Ideological Roots

Core Claim Tom Buchanan's overt racism and classism are not mere character flaws but direct manifestations of specific, pervasive ideological currents and social anxieties that defined the American elite in the 1920s.
Historical Coordinates In 1920s America, the "Red Scare" and anxieties about immigration fueled a resurgence of nativism and white supremacist ideologies. Books like Lothrop Stoddard's The Rising Tide of Color Against White World-Supremacy (1920), which Tom explicitly references, provided pseudo-scientific justification for racial hierarchies and fears of "race-mixing," influencing public discourse among the privileged classes (Fitzgerald, 1925).
Historical Analysis
  • Nativist Panic: Tom's obsession with "Nordic superiority" and his fear of "the colored empires" directly mirrors the widespread nativist panic of the era, which culminated in restrictive immigration laws like the Immigration Act of 1924, because these fears were deeply ingrained in the social fabric of the white elite (Fitzgerald, 1925).
  • Class Entrenchment: His disdain for Gatsby's "new money" and his insistence on inherited wealth as the sole legitimate form of status reflects the old aristocracy's desperate attempt to maintain its social and economic dominance against the fluidity of the Jazz Age, because the rapid accumulation of wealth by others threatened their established order (Fitzgerald, 1925).
  • Post-War Disillusionment: The trauma of World War I, coupled with rapid social change, led many traditionalists to seek stability in rigid social structures and racial theories, because these provided a seemingly rational framework for understanding a world they perceived as spiraling out of control (Fitzgerald, 1925).
Think About It

How does understanding the specific racial and class anxieties prevalent among the American elite in the 1920s transform our interpretation of Tom Buchanan's seemingly personal prejudices?

Thesis Scaffold

Fitzgerald embeds Tom Buchanan's casual racism and class snobbery within the specific historical context of 1920s nativism and eugenics, demonstrating how broader societal anxieties about racial purity and social hierarchy were internalized and weaponized by the privileged to defend their status (Fitzgerald, 1925).

ideas

Ideas — Philosophical Stakes

The Ideology of Entitlement: Tom Buchanan's Moral Universe

Core Claim How does Tom Buchanan's unwavering belief in his own inherent superiority function as a self-justifying ideology, allowing him to violate the very moral codes he demands of others?
Ideas in Tension
  • Inherited Virtue vs. Earned Merit: Tom believes his birthright grants him inherent virtue and authority, directly opposing Gatsby's belief that wealth and self-improvement can earn a place in society, because this tension highlights the fundamental conflict between old and new American ideals (Fitzgerald, 1925).
  • Social Order vs. Individual Desire: He champions a rigid social order based on class and race, yet his own illicit affair with Myrtle demonstrates a personal disregard for the very societal norms he expects others to uphold, because his hypocrisy reveals the self-serving nature of his "morality" (Fitzgerald, 1925).
  • Truth vs. Convenience: Tom readily dismisses inconvenient truths or alternative perspectives, such as Gatsby's claims about Daisy's love, in favor of narratives that reinforce his own power and control, because his worldview prioritizes his comfort and dominance over objective reality (Fitzgerald, 1925).
In Discipline and Punish (1975), Michel Foucault argues that power operates not just through overt force but through the subtle normalization of certain behaviors and beliefs; Tom Buchanan exemplifies this by internalizing and enforcing the "natural" superiority of his class, making his prejudices seem like common sense (Fitzgerald, 1925).
Think About It

If Tom Buchanan genuinely believes in the moral superiority of his class, how can he simultaneously justify his own flagrant infidelity and violent behavior without experiencing internal conflict?

Thesis Scaffold

Fitzgerald uses Tom Buchanan's unwavering belief in his own moral exceptionalism, particularly evident in his condemnation of Gatsby's "new money" while pursuing an affair, to critique the inherent hypocrisy of an ideology built on inherited privilege rather than ethical conduct (Fitzgerald, 1925).

essay

Essay — Writing Strategy

Crafting Arguments About Tom Buchanan's Role

Core Claim Students often misread Tom Buchanan as a simple villain; a strong thesis recognizes him as a complex ideological figure whose actions are rooted in specific social and historical pressures.
Three Levels of Thesis
  • Descriptive (weak): In The Great Gatsby, Tom Buchanan's character embodies the corrupting influence of inherited wealth and privilege, as evident in his treatment of George Wilson and his mistress Myrtle (Fitzgerald, 1925, p. 123).
  • Analytical (stronger): Tom Buchanan's wealth and social status allow him to act cruelly towards others, showing the negative effects of privilege in the novel (Fitzgerald, 1925).
  • Counterintuitive (strongest): F. Scott Fitzgerald portrays Tom Buchanan's aggressive defense of white supremacy and inherited wealth not merely as personal prejudice, but as a desperate, albeit violent, attempt to stabilize a social order he perceives as crumbling under the pressures of the Jazz Age (Fitzgerald, 1925).
  • The fatal mistake: Focusing solely on Tom's "badness" without connecting his actions to the specific social anxieties or ideological frameworks of his time, which reduces him to a flat antagonist rather than a complex representation of systemic issues.
Think About It

Can your thesis about Tom Buchanan be applied to any wealthy, unpleasant character, or does it specifically address his unique function within The Great Gatsby's critique of 1920s American society?

Model Thesis

Fitzgerald constructs Tom Buchanan as a living embodiment of the 1920s elite's anxieties, using his casual racism and violent possessiveness to expose how inherited power corrupts not just individuals, but the very social fabric they claim to protect (Fitzgerald, 1925).

now

Now — 2025 Relevance

Echoes of Entitlement: Tom Buchanan in the Algorithmic Age

Core Claim Tom Buchanan's aggressive defense of inherited status and his fear of "outsiders" structurally mirrors the mechanisms by which established power structures in 2025 resist disruption and maintain control through exclusionary systems.
2025 Structural Parallel Tom Buchanan's fear of "the colored empires" and his insistence on inherited social hierarchy finds a structural parallel in the perpetuation of systemic inequalities through biased algorithms, such as those used in legacy admissions systems, which prioritize inherited status over merit. Just as Tom's worldview automatically devalues those outside his privileged circle, algorithms designed without diverse input can perpetuate existing inequalities by prioritizing established patterns and excluding marginalized groups from opportunities, credit, or even visibility.
Actualization
  • Eternal Pattern: The human tendency to defend unearned advantages through appeals to "natural order" or "tradition" persists, because it offers a convenient justification for maintaining power without accountability.
  • Technology as New Scenery: While Tom's anxieties were expressed through books like Stoddard's, today similar exclusionary narratives are amplified and reinforced through filter bubbles and echo chambers on platforms like X (formerly Twitter), because these systems prioritize engagement over truth and can entrench existing biases.
  • Where the Past Sees More Clearly: Fitzgerald's depiction of Tom's casual, unexamined racism highlights how systemic prejudice operates not always through overt hatred, but through an ingrained sense of superiority that shapes policy and social interaction, because this subtle mechanism remains potent in contemporary institutional structures.
  • The Forecast That Came True: Tom's fear of social mobility and the blurring of class lines, while rooted in the 1920s, accurately predicts the ongoing tension in 2025 between inherited wealth and meritocratic ideals, because the mechanisms for maintaining elite status continue to adapt and evolve.
Think About It

How do contemporary systems, such as social credit scores or exclusionary hiring algorithms, structurally reproduce Tom Buchanan's impulse to categorize and devalue individuals based on inherited or non-meritocratic criteria?

Thesis Scaffold

Tom Buchanan's aggressive defense of his inherited social position and his fear of "new money" structurally parallels the exclusionary logic of legacy admissions systems in 2025, demonstrating how institutions perpetuate unearned privilege by prioritizing inherited status over merit.



S.Y.A.
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S.Y.A.

Literature educator and essay writing specialist. Over 20 years of experience creating educational content for students and teachers.